The Ormskirk Baron

London Fields Hackney Hopster

theormskirkbaron@gmail.com (The Ormskirk Baron) — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 01:33:09 PDT

London Fields Hackney Hopster [baron rating 5/5] - 4.9% copper ale,citrus smell,refreshing zingy sharp bitter taste,dry sharp herbal finish

Listen to what Chris, Paul (Source Deli) and the Baron have to say about it

Subscribe in iTunes


Bottle conditioned with perfect carbonation

Thank you to @bob_beer from Best of British Beer for sending this through for a 'baron rating'!

Buy London Fields ales from Best of British Beer

Arcobrau Weissbier Hell

theormskirkbaron@gmail.com (The Ormskirk Baron) — Wed, 30 May 2012 12:21:24 PDT

Arcobrau Weissbier Hell [baron rating 4/5] - 5.3% hazy gold ale,yeasty banana smell,mild sharp lemon bubblegum taste,mild dry spicy finish

Bottle conditioned with perfect carbonation

Batemans Gold Medal

theormskirkbaron@gmail.com (The Ormskirk Baron) — Mon, 28 May 2012 13:23:02 PDT

Batemans Gold Medal [baron rating 2/5] - 4.1% gold ale,orange buttery cereal smell,slight tart fruity taste,dry slightly stale bitter finish

Not bottle conditioned

Batemans Miss America

theormskirkbaron@gmail.com (The Ormskirk Baron) — Fri, 25 May 2012 14:40:22 PDT

Batemans Miss America [baron rating 3/5] - 4.1% amber ale,sweet dried fruits smell,caramel nutty bitter taste,dry nutty bitter finish

Not bottle conditioned

Hardknott Vitesse Noir

theormskirkbaron@gmail.com (The Ormskirk Baron) — Fri, 25 May 2012 14:27:38 PDT

Hardknott Vitesse Noir [baron rating 5/5] - 11% black ale,vanilla coffee boozy smell,rich bittersweet coffee taste,bitter coffee finish

We had recorded some audio to go along with this rating but found it completely corrupt when I came to edit it :(

Bottle conditioned with mild carbonation

Clown Shoes Brown Angel

theormskirkbaron@gmail.com (The Ormskirk Baron) — Fri, 25 May 2012 13:53:20 PDT

Clown Shoes Brown Angel [baron rating 4/5] - 7% dark amber ale,nutty sugary smell,smooth sweet brown sugar toffee taste,long sweet finish

Bottle conditioned with perfect carbonation

Looking forward to baron rating #EBBC12 ales

theormskirkbaron@gmail.com (The Ormskirk Baron) — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 03:34:41 PDT

Last weekend I attended the European Beer Bloggers Conference 2012 (which I've blogged about quite a bit already) and quite a few of us had mentioned to each other to bring a bottle of something interesting to open there or swap, here are the absolute delights that I came home with:

Artisan American IPA - 5.6% American-style IPA, thanks to Simon aka @RealAleToday
Bridgeport Hop Czar - 7.5% imperial IPA, thanks to @Tandleman
Broadford Damn Nation - 8.3% Belgian golden strong ale, thanks to @BroadfordBrewer
Brouwerij't IJ IPA - 7% IPA, thanks to the Night of International Beers

Hardknott Rhetoric - 12.5% (approx) controversial ale, thanks to by @HardknottAlex
Marston's Marynka - 4% single hopped ale, thanks to Danny on the Marston's stand
Marston's Sovereign - 4% single hopped ale, thanks to Danny on the Marston's stand
Mohawk Extra IPA - 7.5% IPA,thanks to the Night of International Beers
Mohawk Summer IPA - 6.8% IPA,thanks to the Night of International Beers

Off Beat Far Out Stout - 7.4% whisky stout, thanks to @Filrd
Vibrant Forest Black Oktober - 7.2% Imperial Russian Stout, thanks to @mrdavidj
Williams Bros Double Joker IPA - 8% double IPA, thanks to Chris from @WilliamsBrewery

Sharp's Connoisseurs Choice Range

No. 1 Quadrupel Ale - 10% dark ruby ale, aroma of perfumed alcoholic fruit. A full bittersweet fruitiness leads to a warming alcoholic finish
No. 2 Single Brew - 4.5% mid-golden ale,fresh herbal lemon aroma,light barley sugars give way to perfumed bitterness. The finish is dry, clean and exquisitely appetising.
No. 3 Honey Spice Tripel - 10% ale with an aroma of juicy citrus fruit and candyfloss,the flavour is a journey from rich fruity bitterness through to an appetisingly dry finish

I'm really looking forward to baron rating all of these, I have no idea how I managed to get them all home on the train, my arms were killing me by the time I got back! Thank you to everyone who handed something over and I hope you enjoyed the ones that I handed out too!

Grimbergen Dubbel

theormskirkbaron@gmail.com (The Ormskirk Baron) — Tue, 22 May 2012 15:00:08 PDT

Grimbergen Dubbel [baron rating 4/5] - 6.5% dark amber ale,sweet raisin smell,sweet caramel mild fruity taste,fruity sweet finish

Not bottle conditioned

Looking forward to baron rating Windsor & Eton Kohinoor

theormskirkbaron@gmail.com (The Ormskirk Baron) — Tue, 22 May 2012 14:39:27 PDT

Some breweries are getting behind the Queen's Jubilee brewing special ales to commemorate her 60 years of reign. Windsor & Eton Brewery are one such brewery but are not doing one special beer, they are brewing and bottling three different ones!

Earlier in the month I received the first of their beers, Treetops and last week (just before EBBC12) I received a bottle of Kohinoor:

Windsor & Eton Brewery

Kohinoor - 5% IPA, refreshing innovation on a classic IPA, made with exotic ingredients from both India (Jaggery raw cane sugar) and the East Indies (Jasmine petals, cardamom pods & coriander seeds)

Look out for a baron rating for this Windsor & Eton Brewery beer soon, and a big thank you to @WindsorEtonBrew for sending this through to me!

Buy Windsor & Eton ales direct

#EBBC12 in pictures

theormskirkbaron@gmail.com (The Ormskirk Baron) — Wed, 23 May 2012 14:12:27 PDT

European Beer Bloggers Conference 2012 by @baron_orm

Registration badges

Molson Coors

Registration room

Brains

Marston's

Tandleman

Williams Brothers

Zak Avery & Mark Dredge

Spiegelau tasting glasses

Tasting session beers

Spiegelau glasses & pint pot

Hardknott Alex


Ilkley ales

@KaveyEats & @PeteDrinks

Molson Coors beers

Beer Beauty & water!

Sharp's Single Brew

RealAleGuide Simon

SIBA Charlie & Beer Beauty

Peddling4Pints

Live Beer Blogging at the European Beer Bloggers Conference 2012

theormskirkbaron@gmail.com (The Ormskirk Baron) — Sun, 20 May 2012 13:56:03 PDT

Note: This was written live as the presentation was happening and posted as soon as it finished so I apologise for any spelling mistakes or grammatical errors.

Taste 10 beers in 50 minutes.

Leeds Brewery Hellfire 5.2% pale gold ale, fruity slight floral smell, crisp clean citrus taste,very dry long finish

Cheese or fish & chips were suggested as good match

Otley Oxymoron 5.5% black IPA, roasty choc smell, citrus fruity but also dark roasty taste, smooth spicy fruity finish

Brains Dark 4.1% very dark brown dark mild, mild roasted smell, choc & mild berries taste, clean finish

Marble Earl Grey IPA 6.8% gold ale, floral Earl Grey tea smell, complex citrus floral taste, dry tannins finish

Roosters Baby-Faced Assassin 6.1% gold ale, tropical fruits smell, massive clean fruity taste, huge tropical fruity finish

Great Heck Stormin Norman 6.5% gold ale, mild citrus fruity smell, crisp strong bitter taste, very bitter dry finish

Slaters Top Totty 4% pale gold ale, crisp mild herbal smell, clean fresh mild citrus taste, clean lager-like finish

Camden Town USA Hells 4.6% pale gold lager, clean mild herbal smell, clean refreshing taste, big dry slight citrus peppery finish

Adnams Ghost Ship 4.5% gold ale,mild lemony smell, bittersweet tropical taste, bitter finish

Innis & Gunn Scottish Pale Ale 7% amber ale, vanilla citric smell, smooth vanilla fruity taste, long spicy finish

Keynote Speech with Head Brewer Stuart Howe from Sharp’s Brewery

theormskirkbaron@gmail.com (The Ormskirk Baron) — Sun, 20 May 2012 14:00:34 PDT

Stuart Howe, Head Brewer at Sharp’s Brewery. Fell in love with beer in 1993, a lonely time without an online community to talk to like minded-folks. He was told that people didn't want beer to have flavour just not off-flavours by his brewing college tutors. Left Herriot-Watt with a first class degree.

First job was at Brakspear Brewery, then Berkshire Brewery learnt about consistency and quality. Moved to Sharps Brewery, been there ten years. Molson-Coors bought Sharps due to Stuart's passion for flavour and depth.

4 things he loves about beer: Hops & Malt, Diversity, Alcohol, Brewers
4 things he loves about blogging: Personal, Community, Independence, Influence

The Current State of the Hops Industry

theormskirkbaron@gmail.com (The Ormskirk Baron) — Sun, 20 May 2012 13:58:34 PDT

Note: This was written live as the presentation was happening and posted as soon as it finished so I apologise for any spelling mistakes or grammatical errors.

Paul Corbett, Managing Director of Charles Faram, Charles Faram have been merchants of hops for over 100 years and sell over 50 varieties in the UK.

The hop plant, perennial plant, root stays in the ground and grows again in the spring, has a huge tap root that goes down as deep as two and a half metres. There are male and female plants, common perception that seeded hops reduce the foam on the top of the beer, but this is to be proven.

Cross-section of the hop cone, be careful that they dont over-press the hop cones as that would release the oils from the lupus in glands.

Hops used to be hand-picked, peak production level was in 1878 at 71,789 acres. Families would go hop picking as a holiday, Londoners to Kent, black country and south Wales.

Just four hop merchants left in the UK.

Recent developments have been in the introduction of hedgerow (dwarf) hops which were introduced in 1997.

Original varieties were First Gold, Pioneer & Herald.

Each variety is kept true to type by cloning (cuttings from the original). Each seed would produce a new variety.

January/February - weed control
March/April - stringing, putting up nets to allow plenty of growth area for the hops
March/April - training, trim off the extra shoots
June-August - weeds and pest control: aphid & caterpillars, red spider mite, downy & powdery mildew, unable to control verticillium wilt
September - harvesting

Hops arrive at the picking machine, hang the binds onto the bind track which enters the machine. Hops are combed off the plant leaving the hop cones and a few leaves. Special conveyor belts are used to catch the leaves as the hops just roll down but the leaves stick to the ramped belts.

Hops are then dried to preserve them otherwise they would rot. Must be dried down to around 10-12% moisture levels otherwise they would still rot.

Once dried they are baled into pockets and bales.

Every ten bales are sampled to ensure that they have the correct moisture levels, checking colours for when the hop was picked, ranging from green to brown.

Placed into storage between 3-7degC. They can spontaneously combust if they are not dried correctly, a compost-like action can occur building up heat which in turn can ignite the hop oil!

Hops grow between 35-55 degrees latitude, due to daylight lengths as hops are a very fussy plant. If they are grown too tightly together they won't form cones so lots of consideration is given to maximise daylight on the leaves of the plant.

Germany (18k hectares) is the largest hop producer in the world with the USA (12k).

Germany - varieties breed for noble flavour and aroma, newer versions have much more intense flavours
USA - Washington, Oregon & Idaho are the main growing regions. Varieties grown for both noble flavour and intensity
Slovenia - Savinja Valley & Smartno regions. Varieties produce unique Slovinian flavour of Styrian Golding hops
New Zealand - Motueka Valley, Riwaka, Wai-iti regions. Nelson Sauvin named after the wine grape due to its gooseberry flavours
UK - Kent, Hereford, Worcester are the main hop regions. Mild summers and winters mean the hops are a little more balanced in bitterness and aroma than the other countries. Might be bringing back some 1950s varieties which have some avert big intense flavours and aromas

Taking It to the Next Level

theormskirkbaron@gmail.com (The Ormskirk Baron) — Sun, 20 May 2012 13:59:07 PDT

Note: This was written live as the presentation was happening and posted as soon as it finished so I apologise for any spelling mistakes or grammatical errors.

The panelists were beer bloggers Mark Dredge from Pencil and Spoon, Marverine Cole from Beer Beauty, and Zak Avery from The Beer Boy.

Mark: Creative writing degree, space in the beer blogging world for another blog. Got a social media job at a big university, helped him learn even more about it. Took the blogging a bit further with twissups and Open It!. Getting up at 5am to write the blog as it was the only time he had to spare.

Got a published paid-for piece which pushed him further still. Moved on from the uni to a social media PR company tweeting about hospitality, polishing glasses, etc. - pretty boring stuff. Started talking to Camden Town Brewery about doing their social media for them. Deals with all their marketing, branding, etc. Enlightening to see what is on the 'other side'.

Finds it difficult now to blog about certain topics because he now works for a brewery - should he mention his brewery or not?

His next step is to write a beer book, which got accepted around six weeks ago.

Zak: Was finishing off his PHD and walked past BeerRitz and noticed that they were hiring and so took the job. Moved from studying for his PHD to managing the beer shop. Wine tastings were popular but no one was really pushing beer tastings. First couple were terrible, due to lack of planning but he carried on refining the sessions.

He noticed a conversation occurring in the beer blogging world rather than just top-down information pushing so he started blogging.

Twist of fate meant that he was able to buy BeerRitz and it's wholesale company.

Marverine: Has an MA in journalism and trained as a news presenter, done radio and TV and continues to work in the industry.

Used to be a wine drinker but started to explore the beer world and hasn't stopped. Wanted her beer blog to be different, a bit girlie almost a fashion blog for beer. Wanted to push the video side as that was her background.

Started to set up beer tastings for women, very stressful when you are holding down a day job too. Event was setup for fifty women, ended up being oversubscribed, ended up with seventy women!

Showed a short, excellently produced film of snippets of what she's done for beer on TV in the past year or so. Need to push the beer message out to the general masses, that's the only way that opinion and sales of beer is going to increase.

Zak: Was asked to write the 500 Beers book, joined the British Guild of Beer Writers and asked for help on writing a book brief. When he asked the publisher why they approached him to write the book they said it was because of the wealth of information on his blog. He also started to experiment with short video reviews recording and publishing unedited videos on YouTube.

Improving Your Beer Writing

theormskirkbaron@gmail.com (The Ormskirk Baron) — Sun, 20 May 2012 13:58:13 PDT

Note: This was written live as the presentation was happening and posted as soon as it finished so I apologise for any spelling mistakes or grammatical errors.

Simon Jenkins is a Yorkshire Evening Post columnist and was the 2010 British Guild of Beer Writers’ Beer Writer of the Year. Adrian Tierney-Jones is a journalist and writer and current winner of the British Guild of Beerwriter’s Award for National Journalism.

Adrian: You can write what you want, writing for yourself (no editor, publisher, etc. telling you what to write). Talk about what is around you, the people. Find out about the person behind the beer.

Simon: Writes about beer, one column a week, for the Yorkshire Evening Post newspaper. Writes about beer, pubs and the people. When he writes he knows that someone else is going to review it before it's published, gives you a last filter before its sent.

A: Blogs and also writes as well, a couple of beers will often loosen the thought process to allow some really good thoughts to come out. Used to find that beer writing was a real tiny hobby such as 'lorry weekly' and is now much more mainstream than that!

Used to edit the Somerset CAMRA branch magazine, moved into catering magazines, what's brewing, etc. Need to ensure that beer blogging doesn't fall back into the Lorry Weekly days.

S: Saw someone in the pub reading his book which was a massive thrill. Make sure that it's doesn't become a self referencial group excluding outsiders who are not part of the beer circle. People mostly happen across your blog due to a google search most probably for a particular beer. Doesn't like the beer snobbery aspect that excludes certain large breweries from being included in 'good beer' discussions.

A: Try to say your message consisely, you can say the same thing in 500 words as you will in 1200 words. A good example of this is Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog.

S: Go by your own opinions, don't be swayed by others on what is a great beer.

Can beer bloggers learn anything from wine writers?

A: A lot of wine writing is about travel, and forensic tasting of wine. What about how does this beer relate to this place?

S: Any review blogs are going to help with how you can beer blog.

SophWrites: How much effort should we put into finding out who our followers are?

A: Doesn't know who his audience is, just writes what he wants to write.

S: Would love to know who is reading it!

...

DesDeMoor: Uses his blog to be able to write the longer pieces that he wants to write as often the newspaper/magazine articles are requesting short pieces rather than the more wordy pieces.

A: Fanzines were full of short articles, almost the precursor to blogging. Finds that writing for his blog is much more refreshing than doing the paid-for writing.

Nickiquote: How do you feel about our function to be positive-only?

S: Be yourself, negative is fine, go with what you feel. He considers himself lazy in this respect, he stays away from bad pubs in Leeds and therefore most of his comments are positive. Also pubs are having a hard time so he will generally accentuate the positive. He will be more critical of beers that he trying.

A: Will often leave certain pubs unreviewed as they are bad and he doesn't want to spend the time writing it, plus it will also probably get rejected by the newspaper for being too harsh.

Beer Blogging in Europe

theormskirkbaron@gmail.com (The Ormskirk Baron) — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:55:54 PDT

Panelists include Pelle Stridh in Sweden, Ludmil Fotev from Bulgaria and Jan Menken from Bier & Trein in The Netherlands.

Jan started off beer tasting with Heineken and now 20 years on is still on a beer tasting journey. Ludmil blogs about beer culture and how the younger well traveled adults are experiencing different tastes from other countries and bringing those flavours home with them. Pelle is the chairman of the SOF as well as a beer writer, resurant owner amongst other things.

5 members of the SOF out of 30 members are here at the conference who have travelled from Sweden. All about beer is his website and they run their own beer festival with over 20 different breweries.

Pelle: What is the beer bloggers position in your country?

Jan: Most who write a beer blog are also active in another beer related activities.

Ludmil: most regions are wine producers rather than beer brewers/drinkers. Most breweries are owned by major beer companies. Marketing and labels are often shared between breweries which are owned by the big breweries. Wasn't a great range of different beers but now due to foreign tourists, microbreweries are starting to crop up. Bulgarian Beer Church & beer2beer.com , all4beer.com are sites where they communicate with other members of the online beer community.

Ludmil: Are your blogs helping in the development in the microbreweries and the growth of craft ale?

Pelle: In the 80s there were 35 different beers available, 33 were Swedish with 32 being owned by major breweries. Now they have over 700 different beers produced from 50-60 breweries. The interest in drinking craft beer is growing, they used to ask for "a big strong" meaning the strongest, cheapest beer - luckily this is reducing.

BeerBeauty: What is the relationship that you hold with the breweries?

Jan: Will often be offered tastes of new beer as he is known on the scene as a beer judge. You can have some influence on where the brewery is going.

Ludmil: Sees the wine drinker and the beer drinker as cousins, each can appreciate the others drink.

Pelle: most small craft brewery in Sweden have a close relationship with beer bloggers, more so than the traditional beer writer. Most breweries will listen to what the bloggers have to say and will try to correct any issues.

How much influence does the English language blogs have in your countries?

Pelle: Probably all of the beer bloggers will be reading uk and USA beer bloggers although only one Swedish blogger writes in English.

Ludmil: They read about the breweries and current beer news rather than reading the reviews of beers that they won't be able to get hold of.

Jan: Reading the English language blogs is not a problem, and most will use uk and USA blogs to see what is going on. They often overlook the German blogs which is a shame as they are trying lots of new styles.

How to engage with the public about beer?

Jan: Been writing about German beer for a while which is underrepresented in Swedish beer blogs. He finds that the US beers have been the primary focus but that more attention should be paid to the English and German beers.

Pelle: A good way to get people interested in good beer is to go through food. People are not starting to ask for the beer list in fine restaurants rather than asking for the wine list.

RealAleToday: Where do you see YouTube?

Pelle: More for the geekier side of craft beer rather than the mainstream.

How to mute Twitter #hashtags such as #ebbc12...

theormskirkbaron@gmail.com (The Ormskirk Baron) — Thu, 17 May 2012 13:10:08 PDT

As you probably know, this weekend is the European Beer Bloggers Conference over in Leeds where nearly 100 beer bloggers are meeting up for sessions, talks, samples and meals as well as plenty of catching up and making of new friends.

We will all be using the Twitter hashtag #ebbc12 and there is probably going to be an absolute ton of tweets from the attendees, myself included. If you are not attending or interested in every minor detail of the conference then you are going to get pretty fed up of the #ebbc12 hashtag.

But there is a glimmer of hope for you: a lot of Twitter clients have a way of muting a particular hashtag so that you won't see any tweets which contain it. I couldn't find details on how to do this with the main Twitter website but I do know that it's possible in Echofon (the client I use via Firefox on my PC) and I've read that at least Tweetbot & TweetDeck have ways to mute hashtags.

On Echofon it's really easy, simply right-click on the 'evil' hashtag and select the mute option:

Silence that sucka!

For the other two clients, click the links above. If you use a different client and know how to mute hashtags then please add a comment to this post so that we don't upset too many people whilst we have a great time! :)

Grimbergen Blonde

theormskirkbaron@gmail.com (The Ormskirk Baron) — Wed, 16 May 2012 14:32:31 PDT

Grimbergen Blonde [baron rating 3/5] - 6.7% gold ale,apple white grape grassy smell,herbal sweet white grape taste,dry herbal finish

Not bottle conditioned

Baron on Tour: BrewDog Manchester Bar

theormskirkbaron@gmail.com (The Ormskirk Baron) — Wed, 16 May 2012 14:48:28 PDT

HopZine Rob got in touch with me a couple of weeks ago to say that a few folks from Twitter were making there way down to the newly opened BrewDog Manchester bar and would I like to join them. After a quick discussion with the Baroness I was cleared of fatherly duties on Saturday 5th May and so cycled to Burscough Bridge station to catch the train into Deansgate.

Whilst on the train I realised that I had done an 'epic fail' - I had no idea where on Deansgate the bar was. Luckily twitter is your best friend and after a tweet for help I received three separate replies with directions and a phone call from Tara Mallinson giving me directions (they were already there!).

Tara & Elaine from Mallinsons

On arrival at the cool glass-fronted bar I found Tara & Elaine from Mallinsons happily occupying one of the sofas on the upstairs mezzanine floor (it's only small up there) so I ordered a half of BrewDog's new beer, the 3.8% Dead Pony Club and joined them.

Dead Pony Club is an excellent beer, so light at 3.8% and yet so packed with flavour: it's sweet and resinous on the nose with a lovely juicy zingy bittersweet taste and a long bitter finish - a cracking pint. It's only down side? It's nearly £4 a pint!

Adam & Rob

This was also the cheapest beer in the place so I'm pretty sure that's going to put some people off going there but maybe BrewDog don't mind as there's plenty of others that seemed happy to pay it (by the time we left mid-evening it was heaving).

Nick & Kate

nce back upstairs and chatting away to Mallinsons we were joined by Adam, Mark, Rob and Nick & Kate (who helped brew the fantastic Summer Wine Covenant ale for their wedding). A great afternoon was had trying numerous beers (both BrewDog and imported bottles).

I opted for a Port Brewing Wipeout IPA on recommendation from Rob, and it was amazing! It was £8 for the 660ml bottle and well worth it, an awesome beer. I saw that Nick and Kate tried the Mongo IPA from Port Brewing as well as BrewDog's Anarchist/Alchemist.

I also need to mention that it was great to see Adnams spirits behind the bar, nice to see one brewery supporting another!

Toby & The Baron

As we were leaving Toby from RedWillow Brewery popped in so we convinced him to join us on the move to Port Street Beer House.

It's 'so close to Manchester Piccadilly station you can almost smell it' location suited us all as it meant that we could leave when we wanted too knowing that the train was not far away.

Rob & Andy

Adam & Dave

We drank some cracking beer in Port Street as well, Saison Dupont was amazing as was a number of other ales that I can't remember for the life of me as I was too busy chatting to the other guys and being amazed at bumping into BeerReviewsAndy and Dave Lozman on Dave's stag do!

Canterbury Foundry Torpedo

theormskirkbaron@gmail.com (The Ormskirk Baron) — Wed, 16 May 2012 12:13:49 PDT

Canterbury Foundry Torpedo [baron rating 4/5] - 4.5% amber ale,sweet caramel floral smell,spicy fruity bitter taste,zingy fruity dry finish

Bottle conditioned with moderate carbonation

Thank you to Richard (@SlurpBeer) from Slurp Beer for sending this through for a 'baron rating'!

Buy Canterbury ales from Slurp Beer

Wentwell Barrel Organ Blues

theormskirkbaron@gmail.com (The Ormskirk Baron) — Tue, 15 May 2012 14:23:48 PDT

Wentwell Barrel Organ Blues [baron rating 3/5] - 4.5% dark amber ale,dark choc berry smell,mild tart berries choc taste,dusty cocoa finish

Listen to what Chris and the Baron have to say about it

Subscribe in iTunes

Note: Bottle conditioned with perfect carbonation

Thank you to Richard (@SlurpBeer) from Slurp Beer for sending this through for a 'baron rating'!

Buy Wentwell ales from Slurp Beer

What I'm taking to EBBC12

theormskirkbaron@gmail.com (The Ormskirk Baron) — Tue, 15 May 2012 11:47:05 PDT

I signed up for the European Beer Bloggers Conference months ago when it was just a far-off date on the calendar. Time has flown by, and this Friday Chris and I will be heading off to Leeds to join the other beer bloggers (and vloggers, podcasters & twitterers).

I'm really looking forward to it, meeting up with a handful of people that I've met before and loads that I've only chatted to on Twitter - it's going to be excellent!

Here's the pile of stuff that I'm taking with me this weekend:

iPad loaded with all sorts of blogging tools
digital camera
iPad camera connection kit
iPad microphone
The Beer Stick
An "Open It!" bottle
notebook & pen
Paracetamol
Train tickets for Leeds & Huddersfield
Android phone and charging cables
4-way power strip
My Twadge
My TweeShirts

Have I forgotten anything?

What are you taking?

Note: written 100% on the iPad using Blogsy

Mallinsons Chinook

theormskirkbaron@gmail.com (The Ormskirk Baron) — Tue, 15 May 2012 03:00:41 PDT

Mallinsons Chinook [baron rating 5/5] - 4.1% copper ale,sweet soft tangerine smell,balanced fruity bitter soft mouthfeel taste,bitter finish

Listen to what Chris and the Baron have to say about it

Subscribe in iTunes

Note: Bottle conditioned with perfect carbonation

Thank you to Tara & Elaine (@Mallinsons) from Mallinsons Brewery for handing this over for a 'baron rating'!

Buy Mallinsons ales from BeerRitz, myBrewerytap & Source Deli

Looking forward to baron rating Dark Star Six Hop

theormskirkbaron@gmail.com (The Ormskirk Baron) — Mon, 14 May 2012 13:08:17 PDT

Dark Star Brewing Co. have a warm place in my heart having started off in The Evening Star pub in Brighton which was the town where I grew up ('Hove actually'). It also helps that they make excellent beers, their Hophead is one that I head for if I ever see it on as it's such an amazingly tasty low ABV beer.

I've baron rated a number of their bottled ales and was even lucky enough to taken around the brewery on a personal tour so I was really excited when I found a bottle of their brand new Six Hop in the box along with my recent order from Ales By Mail:

Dark Star Brewing Co.

Six Hop - 6.5% hand crafted extreme hops ale,six different varieties of hops,used during six stages of the brewing process, by six brewers... it's a beast of a beer

The label is lovely on this tall slender 330ml bottle, as it wraps around the sides, the edges of the label are detailed with twisting hop vines and the bottle is topped with a lovely cap sporting the Dark Star star.

Look out for the baron rating for this Dark Star Brewing Co. beer soon, and a big thank you to Paul Kruzycki from Ales By Mail for sending it through to me!

Buy Dark Star ales direct or from Ales By Mail

Green Jack Albion Mild

theormskirkbaron@gmail.com (The Ormskirk Baron) — Sun, 13 May 2012 14:58:10 PDT

Green Jack Albion Mild [baron rating 4/5] - 3.8% dark amber ale,mild plum smell,smooth caramel choc fruity taste,dry fruity mild choc finish

Listen to what the Baron has to say about it (solo audio review this time)

Subscribe in iTunes

Note: Bottle conditioned with perfect carbonation

Thank you to Martin (@GreenJackBrew) from Green Jack brewery for sending this through for a 'baron rating'!

Buy Green Jack ales direct and from Ales By Mail and myBrewerytap